Slips of my tongue

Lizzie is a 20-year-old model who appears in the current September issue of Glamour magazine. Lizzie has created a buzzstorm on the Interweb because she LOOKS LIKE EVERY WOMAN YOU KNOW. A size 12-14, she is described in the accompanying article as “curvy”, “plus-size” and “normal”.

The mag’s website has been inundated with readers’ comments praising Glamour for (briefly) veering away from the supermodels that usually grace their pages. I, myself, posted a Jezebel.com article about this rare occurance on Facebook and Twitter and the reaction was pretty huge.

It was all great – the sun was shining, the weekend is near and there is a beautiful woman with a belly in the pages of a lady mag.

I wanted to show my support and buy the issue, breaking my two-years-and-counting moratorium on lady mags. I wanted to help boost Glamour’s revenue for the issue to reinforce the notion that real women like seeing other real women in print.

When I went to the local newsstand and picked up the issue, to what did my disbelieving eyes should appear?

It wasn’t Jessica Simpson on the cover, the former pop/reality star who has her own weight issues to contend with and seems to be in her “photoshopped skinny” phase.

It was the headline on the right: 3 FLAT BELLY SECRETS.

I didn’t buy the magazine. I put it back on the rack and walked away, slowly shaking my head.